Présentation de l'éditeur
Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. - 2 COR. V. 5. THERE is no point of more moment to all, nor of greater comfort to saints, than what shall become of their souls when they die. It is our next stage; and things that are next use more to affect us. And besides, it is the beginning, and a taking possesion of our eternity. That these words should aim at this self-same thing, cannot be discerned without consulting the foregoing part of the apostles discourse; and yet I cannot be large in bringing down the coherence, having pitched upon what this fifth verse contributes unto this argument, which alone will require more than this time allotted, having also very largely gone through the exposition of the foregoing verses elsewhere; and I now go but on where I left last. But yet to make way for the understanding the scope of my text, take The coherence in brief, thus: In the 16th verse of the foregoing chapter, where the well-head of his discourse is to be found, he shews the extraordinary care God hath of our inward man, to renew it day by day. Where inward man is strictly the soul with its graces, set in opposition to our outward man, the body with its appurtenances, which he saith daily perisheth, that is, is in a mouldering and decaying condition. Chap. v. 1. For we know, that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In this first verse of this fifth chapter, he meets with this supposition: but what if this outward man or earthly tabernacle be wholly dissolved and pulled down, what then shall become of this inner man? And he resolves it thus, That if it be dissolved, we have an house, a building of God in the heavens.
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